In the United States the population of live births is approximately 4 million infants per year. Each of these infants goes through significant developmental changes during the first two years of life in order to transition from nipple feedings from a breast or a bottle to drinking from a cup. However, efficient cup drinking is a complex process that requires a child to coordinate head, trunk, hand to mouth, lip, tongue, and jaw movements, manage a variety of fluid viscosities, and coordinate swallowing and breathing patterns to variable volume and flow rates. Given the complexity of managing these various factors, developing children might be introduced to cup drinking around 6 months of age, but frequently require as much as 18 months of practice to become independent with efficient cup drinking.
For children with developmental disabilities who might be further delayed in obtaining all of the precursors related to cup drinking, the ability to transition to an open cup can take even longer. In addition, children with either high (i.e. cerebral palsy, prematurity) or low (Down syndrome) muscle tone or major structural anomalies (i.e. cardiac, cleft palate) may also face additional challenges of transitioning to an open cup because of an inability to control the bolus, therefore putting them at great risk for aspiration.
During a child's lengthy developmental process (whether the child be developmentally disabled or not), the child typically either remains on a bottle or is transitioned to a “training-cup” that is frequently equipped with a “no-spill” lid that requires the child to suck on a spout in order to break a pressure vacuum seal and to continue sucking to acquire a stream of fluid through the spout. Companies that design these training cups frequently direct marketing strategies to highlight that children in this developmental transition period are prone to spill when using an open cup, thereby creating an inconvenience for caregivers. The effectiveness of these marketing strategies has resulted in the proliferation of “no-spill” cups despite warnings from American Dental Association (ADA) against the use of such cups. The ADA released a statement in 2004 that described “no-spill” training cups as “nothing more than baby bottle(s) in disguise,” recommending that parents avoid this type of training cup because of the well documented, long-term complications of extended bottle use. These complications include: otitis media, iron deficiencies, obesity, and dental caries. Furthermore, because the design characteristics of almost all current “no-spill” cups requires active strong sucking by a drinker, other complications such as dental occlusion patterns, temporomandibular joint dysfunction, and myofunctional disorders are also a concern.
In view of the foregoing, it would be advantageous to provide a drinking cup with a no-spill feature for developing children and developmentally-challenged individuals that does not require the drinker to create intra-oral pressure (i.e. to suck) in order to acquire a stream of fluid.